As nice as a slow steady decline would be, I dont see it happening. The whole market is based on panic. Panic to buy when prices are shooting higher, and panic to sell when things start going south.

If we do start so see drops it probably wont be quite as steep of a decline as 2008 though. All the excess condo inventory caused developers to flood newspapers and radio with ads of steep discounts. I think this probably added to the panic and caused faster drops. If we can stay away from those kind of fire sale ads this time around it could be more gradual, but not by much.

The media will still cover the drops and with the way everyone talks about RE in this town everyone will know someone who had to sell at a loss. Before you know it the panic will set in again and the boys in Ottawa will try to "save us" all over again.